Peach's Virus
by nld200xy
Summary: A strange virus has entered Peach's immune system as she is too weak to awaken from her sleep. On the very night that this virus hits, she undergoes a change that could end the lives of her and everyone else in the kingdom. Can Mario help her? Maybe no
1. Chapter 1

Mushroom Kingdom Virus

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Mario characters in this fic. In one of the later chapters, I will introduce an original character, but otherwise, no other character is mine.

It was a quiet and peaceful day in the vast land known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Here, things were beautiful and dark. What do I mean? Well, the mushroom kingdom was composed of various different climates.

Some areas had trees, flowers and all sorts of stuff you can imagine while other areas were dark and dreary. There were also deserts, arctic planes, swamps and many other areas. The most dangerous of places that took up 75% of the Mushroom Kingdom were owned by the evil king Bowser, who might play a part in this story later.

Our story currently revolves around Princess Peach, the owner of the peaceful 25% that the king of evil did not rule over. She was as beautiful as they came with her long rich blond hair, her elegant pink dress, sparkling eyes and a shining tiara that she wore atop her head. She rules the mushroom people known as toads after toadstools. The reason behind this naming was because toads were little people that resembled mushrooms. Their skin was the typical color of a mushroom but they often wore clothing and mushroom caps on their heads.

One day, Peach had not woken up at her usual time. She had slept in that day and this caused her subjects to worry about her.

"So, what is it, Doc?" a toad asked as another wearing doctor's clothes held up his stethoscope and said, "This is not good at all."

At this very moment, the oldest toad in the castle with a bushy mustache and a yellow cap named Toadsworth rushed into the room shouting, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE PRINCESS!!!?? PLEASE TELL ME SHE'S OKAY!!!!"

Toadsworth was Peach's guardian. He had raised her ever since she was a baby and was very overprotective of her. He always freaked out whenever something went wrong as his old man heart just couldn't take the kinds of things that happened to her.

"Toadsworth, I'm gonna be frank with you," the doctor said, "Princess Toadstool has caught a very rare virus, one so rare that even I, Dr. Dip Mudwell, have no idea what it is!" (I think you might be able to get the reference there)

"Oh, this is terrible," Toadsworth groaned, "She and Mario were supposed to have a picnic today."

Hold on! Those of you who have never played a Mario game before probably want to know just who Mario is. He was the hero of the mushroom kingdom and had earned his reputation by saving the princess from many situations. See, most conflicts in the mushroom kingdom started whenever someone kidnapped Princess Peach and whenever it would happen, Mario would save her.

Who is this brave knight who would stand up against all odds? He was a plumber.

I can hear you newbies laughing in the background, but this is no joke. Mario was a plumber and he had grown up in Brooklyn but one day stumbled upon the mushroom kingdom while trying to unclog a very strange pipe.

Why would the princess be in love with him? Well, he was already a pretty good specimen of manliness. (According to the RPGs) He had a rugged mustache and an average build. He had red eyes and smooth brown hair. Over all of this he wore a red plumber's outfit along with blue overalls and work shoes. For some odd reason, he always wore his plumber gear, even to bed. (I always found that strange)

Why was he such a hero, though? Due to the fact he was a plumber, he was very strong. For some reason, he could also run very fast and jump higher than Michael Jordan, the famous basketball player. He was also able to make good use of the mushroom kingdom's various powerups, such as mushrooms that could grow him to 3 times his size and flowers that could bestow upon him the powers of fire. There were many others and Mario had mastered them in a short time while other residents of the mushroom kingdom would have been lucky to even control them. Mind you, he had a slight belly due to his years of eating pasta and rich sauces. Mario had a bit of a stereotypical Italian side to him. Go figure.

He was the apple of Peach's eye, and they both loved each other very much.

As the doctor suggested that Peach should stay in bed and rest, Mario had entered the room and said, "I came here as the princess' invitation said, but no one was waiting for me, so I came to see what was up."

He notices Peach in his bed and said, "Hey, princess, I'm here!"

"She won't wake up," Dip explained, "I'm afraid she is suffering from a terrible virus and will be out like a light all day."

Mario had a look of concern as Toadsworth hung his head in shame and said, "I'm so sorry. I knew how much you were looking forward to that picnic today."

Mario actually had other intentions. After the years of those 2 being a couple, his younger brother Luigi had suggested that it was about time Mario proposed marriage. It was something he had questioned for some time, but he felt in his heart that the princess was who he wanted. It seemed things were just against him today.

Suddenly, Peach managed to start moving and opened her eyes to look at the man she admired so as the toads gasped.

"It's either a miracle or a downside, but it would seem the princess is moving," Mudwell said as Toadsworth breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mario, you came," she said with a smile, but it was hard for her to make out the words for she still felt weak from her current illness, "I'm sorry I couldn't be healthy enough for us to enjoy our picnic…"

"It's fine," Mario said as he sighed with relief, "I'm just glad you can move, but don't strain yourself. You need to rest so you can get better."

"He's right," Dip said, "The fact that you're moving at all could make it worse than it already is. And if you keep moving, you… will… DIE!"

Toadsworth passed out as Peach nodded in understanding. Mario held onto her hand and said, "Don't worry, princess. All you need it rest and we'll be able to spend time together tomorrow."

With that, Peach dozed off back to sleep and Mario headed off to his pad. The doctor confirmed that the only cure was to let it go away on its own and Toadsworth had another heart attack from hearing that just after recovering from his first one.

We now take you to the darkest and dankest of places in the mushroom kingdom. Here, there was lava where rivers should be. The trees had no leaves and nor did the bushes. All plants here were piranhas, mean killers that would devour anyone that posed a threat to them. In the middle of this area stood the castle of King Bowser Koopa. A koopa was a turtle, and just that. They walked on two legs, yes, but nevertheless, they were turtles. They all had their own unique looks, some having red shells, others with blues ones, and some even wore shades. The female koopas for the most part were the only ones with hair. The major exceptions were Bowser's children, but they won't really be playing a part in this.

Bowser himself, like his kids, was far different from any koopa you could ever see. He was a mix between a turtle and a dragon, some would say. He had blazing hair that was the color of fire and his shell had spikes coming out the back of it. He was also 5 times the size of a typical koopa. He wore spiked armbands and ankle braces and had the toughest scales in the whole kingdom. He was also the only koopa with sharp jaws that could devour flesh, but he rarely ever used them for that purpose. Even his face was more like that of a dragon than that of a koopa. I almost forgot, he also had bull horns.

This very day, he was bored. See, Bowser, much like Mario, was in love with Peach. But since he was evil, he didn't believe that she would just accept a marriage proposal, and she never did, so he would always resort to kidnapping her in order to force her into marriage. He also would have liked to own the remainder of land he didn't, but his sights were set on the beautiful maiden he had his sights set on.

"I've got it!" he shouted out of nowhere, "Subjects, come here!"

His royal subjects reported to him as he held his hands behind his back and said, "I know how I will make the princess mine tonight."

The subjects weren't really impressed and never really liked doing this, but they would always remain loyal and never showed their disinterest in the king's beliefs.

"I will sneak into the castle tonight after she has gone to sleep," he explained, "To avoid having her wake up, I will have my most trusted right-hand man, Kamek, cast a sleep spell all over the kingdom."

Kamek was what was known as a magikoopa. Magikoopas were koopas without shells. Rather than shells, they wore cloaks and shades and could cast powerful magic with their wands.

Kamek himself strutted up to the king and asked, "What if the Mario brothers try to stop us?"

"That's a good point," Bowser said, "Go by their house and cast the same spell beforehand. After you put Peach and the rest of the kingdom to a long sleep, I will go myself and take her from the kingdom. There, our top scientists will alter her brain so she will love me and only me."

The koopas had to admit, this wasn't the king's worst plan ever and he'd taken extra precautions. Who knows? It might actually have worked.

Later that night, something strange was happening. Dr. Dip volunteered to watch over the princess while she slept, but something odd had happened during her sleep. The doctor had dozed off but woke up when he noticed that the princess was actually standing on her two feet. His eyes widened as he barked, "Get back in bed, princess!"

To his shock, she ignored him and pushed him into a wall with the force of a grizzly bear. Where had this strength come from?

Toadsworth had gotten up to get a glass of water to calm his nerves when he noticed Peach up and awake. Now, he would have worried like the doctor had, but due to the fact that she was walking around rather easily, it seemed as if she was back to normal.

"Princess, it's such a relief to see your illness gone," he said as Peach walked over to him with emotionless eyes and held him up by his cap.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he passed out from the pressure of seeing Peach trying to harm him.

At this very moment, the guards rushed in holding their spears up shouting, "We heard a noise!"

They were shocked to see Peach standing and were even more shocked with what happened next. Peach slouched towards the ground as her pupil vanished. Then something really odd happened. Her legs tucked in under her dress and rather than coming back out, a group of tentacles emerged, slimy green tentacles. The guards had no way to respond as she whipped out all 10 slamming them into the wall knocking them out. After that, another 10 accompanied these ones and the princess tore a hole through the castle coming out into the courtyard.

Was this all a symptom of her virus? What kind of illness would cause this kind of transformation?

The toads all woke up when she started to knock down the walls. It seemed as though she had no idea what she was doing. The toads trembled upon seeing this, but dared not ask questions. Their best bet was to stop her rampage. Some brave souls tried and were knocked unconscious while many others were too afraid, not only of her appearance but also the thought of harming their ruler.

A young one, the only toad to actually go under the name Toad, ran from the castle quickly to the one place he knew he could find good help.

Mario and his brother Luigi were fast asleep at the time. Luigi was Mario's younger brother, but despite being younger, he was twice Mario's height. He also had a shorter mustache and wore green work clothes that were pretty much the same as Mario's only a different color. He also had green eyes and like Mario he had smooth brown hair.

Luigi grunted when he heard a knock on the door and slowly got out of bed yawning and rubbing his eyes. He opened the door, holding up a candle for light as he noticed Toad knelt down in front of the door and almost out of breath.

"What's wrong?" Luigi asked, suddenly more awake than he had been before.

Toad just breathed heavily and said, "Something odd happened to the princess! You guys need to help us!"

"Bowser must have kidnapped her again," Luigi said as Toad shook his head and explained, "For some reason, she's changed into some kind of monster and is destroying the castle. You need to help us."

This was very odd and led Luigi to start questioning whether Toad was right in the head or not. Nevertheless, Toad was persistent and Mario was woken up and the two brothers ran to the castle.

Shortly after they'd left, Kamek had flown to their house on a broom very much like what a witch does and cast the sleep spell on their house, not realizing that the Mario brothers weren't in it. Unaware of what was going on he felt proud of himself and thought that Bowser would be proud of him.

Upon arriving at the castle carrying Toad the whole way, Mario and Luigi's eyes widened when they saw a tentacle-bearing monster with the princess' body destroying the castle.

"Is that Peach?" Mario asked as Toad nodded and all that could come out of the brothers' mouths was "How did this happen?"


	2. Chapter 2

Mushroom Kingdom Virus

Today had been a very odd day. Odd was putting it lightly. This was like a horror movie taking place in the often peaceful side of the Mushroom Kingdom as Princess Peach had become a horrible monster. What had happened to her? Was this the unknown virus she had received this very day? Better yet, could the kingdom's greatest heroes, the Mario Brothers, possibly stop this?

"How could this happen?" Mario asked still in shock, "This can't be the real princess, can it?"

"If it wasn't her, she'd still be in her room," Toad said, "And seeing as her room's destroyed, we got a pretty good view and she's definitely not in it or anywhere else in the castle."

This was a big predicament. Would Mario really bring himself to fight his one true love? For all he knew, the solution to this problem might have been… death.

Alas, there were far more lives at stake right now and one was hardly worth the 150 that were in the castle, let alone the minimum 5000 good people that lived in these parts of the kingdom.

And even those in the areas Bowser ruled over would be victims, and despite being bad, Mario felt that even they didn't deserve death… just a simple trip to the hospital would suffice.

He knew what he had to do.

"Alright, we'll fight," he said with a look of confidence, "First, we'll see if we can return her to normal with a little bit of force. If it fails, we may have to…"

But he couldn't bear to let out his next words. Luigi held a hand on the plumber's shoulder and nodded in understanding.

"Let's do this!" Mario shouted as Luigi's eyes widened and he replied, "Wait… you were serious?"

"Yes," Mario said as Luigi laughed and said, "Well, good luck out there."

Mario narrowed his eyes and said, "You're helping," as Luigi crouched and started to tremble while backing off slowly only for Toad to stop him in his tracks.

"Surely the great Luigi will help his brother out," he stated with a smile as Luigi looked over at Mario who blinked at him.

Luigi then broke out into tears as Mario sighed and said, "Alright, I'll fight her myself… regardless of how much this is gonna hurt me."

Peach continued to beat the toads senseless when she saw someone else running towards her. If this was the usual Peach, she'd have recognized Mario right away, but seeing as she was possessed by whatever was causing this, Mario was a stranger to her.

She whipped out her tentacles at the plumber who simply did what he did best. Remember when I said he was complementing his agility and jumping ability? I wasn't kidding.

The plumber dodged all 20 tentacles with ease, taking the time to showboat like he seemed to enjoy doing even without an audience, performing acrobatics and even tying all of them together in various knots that would even be hard to do on most ropes but possible at the very least. Then he winced seconds before landing a kick to the princess' face.

What had he done? Mario knew this was the right thing to do, but it still hurt him. He had planted his foot into Peach's skull. Had it been his fist, he would have felt her flesh, and that would have made the feeling much worse. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but regret this action despite knowing he had to.

To make the situation worse, it seemed as if Peach had not even felt the blow. The kick was very hard for sure, but for some reason, she didn't seem to notice he'd done it in the first place.

That was until her eyes turned red. She glared at Mario with a look of anger.

"Princess, stop!!" Mario spat, but his words could not reach the princess as she untied her tentacles and wrapped them around him.

As the grip on Mario got tighter and tighter, the plumber's face started to turn blue. Then it went from blue to purple and from purple to green. He was about to suffocate as Toad leapt in and held his hands over the princess' eyes making her subconsciously throw Mario some of the castle remains. Sure, it had dealt quite a bit of pain to him, but he was still able to stand… well, it would take a minute or so to shake the pain to his head off.

Toad clutched as long as he could onto Peach's head but then realized the rashness of this action when she picked him off with one of her tentacles and hurled him into a wall, knocking him out for good.

Seeing this happening, Luigi had no choice now. He had to help. But he was too frightened to go out there. Then he spotted it, a floating block.

'Please let it be something I can use,' he thought to himself as he leapt up, ramming his fist into it.

Fortunately for him, a small leaf had emerged. Now, one would think a leaf wouldn't be able to help against an opponent such as this, but this was no ordinary leaf.

Luigi grabs onto the leaf's tip and shouted, "MARIO!!!" as the plumber in red looked over at him.

Luigi threw the leaf at him. Due to how leaves generally didn't go far if one threw them, it stopped a mere few inches from where he had thrown it making the younger brother feel pretty stupid.

Nevertheless, Mario ran over to it hopping over Peach's violent attack on him and grabbed hold of it. Suddenly, a light shined from the leaf as Mario was covered in a puff of smoke.

Within this puff of smoke, something amazing was happening. The leaf ripped up into separate pieces. The two smallest one placed themselves atop Mario's hat as they transformed into brown raccoon ears while the remaining fragments combined together and transformed into a striped tail. As the smoke cleared, Mario did a heroic pose shouting, "HERE WE GO!!" and his raccoon form was revealed to the public.

Some of you are probably wondering how a raccoon form would help the plumber. This'll be revealed shortly.

Peach whipped more tentacles at him as he dodged them with more ease than usual. Thanks to the raccoon DNA merging with him, he was a lot more nimble and agile. After a good running start, he leapt towards Peach and amazingly, he started to fly while the tail fluttered up and down. Unlike real raccoons, Mario's raccoon tail allowed him to fly. Finally, after flying past all the tentacles trying to catch him, his flight was almost over for it was limited, so he finished off the pursuit by spinning his body 360 degrees and slamming his tail hard against her face.

Peach's eyes started to burn with even more fury now as her arms became tentacles and snagged the plumber. The pain caused by her squeezing him made the raccoon power vanish as Mario was now helpless.

The plumber sniffed as tears ran down his face. His one true love was going to kill him.

"PEACH, STOP THIS!!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, and amazingly, this caused the princess to loosen her grip so he could breathe.

"Princess, even since I met you, I have had so many feelings I hadn't felt before," he said through tears, "I love you, Peach."

For a split second, you could see a tear running down the woman's face before her eyes turned red again and she started suffocating him again. Just as Mario was about to take his last breath, a bright light came from nowhere and circled around him flashing brightly and blinding everyone in the area briefly. As the light vanished, Mario was gone.

"Mario?" Luigi let out as he looked around and called out, "Mario!"

He looked around some more and spat, "MARIO!" but alas, Mario was nowhere to be seen. Where had he gone?

The toads were scared stiff now as their only protection was gone and the princess resumed pinning them up against the walls. Something strange happened as the tentacles pressed against them. The tentacles started to make a pumping noise as it looked like something was being sucked into them like a tube.

As the toads' faces started to wrinkle, Luigi knew what was happening. She was sucking the life out of them.

With the only one who could stand up to her gone, Luigi had no choice. He had to help.

Luigi leapt towards Peach and planted his foot hard into her face before she could even realize he was there. See, Luigi was not only faster than Mario, he could also jump higher. What he lacked in physical strength he made up for with skill. Some believed he was better than Mario, but his fear prevented him from mastering his abilities completely.

Upon hitting Peach in the face, his determined look became one of fear as the princess' eyes turned red once more and he was sent reeling into a yellow block. As he tried to get out of the daze he'd been put in, he bumped into the block again, which had turned brown and an odd suit fell on him covering him in a cloud of smoke.

Like with Mario's raccoon form, something amazing was happening in this cloud. For some reason, a koopa wearing a helmet and a silver shell known as a hammer brother was walking through this cloud. Luigi, by instinct, jumped on it forcing it out of its shell and now Luigi had it on. Then a pair of shoulder pads and knee pads appears as he stood tall and proud, the smoke clearing to reveal Hammer Luigi. (I based this idea of transformation sequences off of the Kirby anime)

The toads who hadn't had their energy sucked dry, which was actually quite a lot seeing as Peach only had 22 tentacles now, cheered as Luigi whipped out a hammer and launched it at Peach's face. Unlike Mario, he had no romantic interest in Peach, and right now he was too scared to show any judgment.

Sadly, his fear had taken a turn for worse when he realized he had caused Peach's nose to start bleeding. He yelped out in fear as she whipped her tentacles at him.

Luckily, a hammer brother's shell was the second-strongest shell among the koopas, so when Luigi tucked himself under the shell and helmet, the tentacles with nothing to him. Did that mean he was safe? Not quite for the tentacles then surrounded themselves around him cutting off his air intake.

'Who knows how long this will last?' he thought to himself.

At this very moment, Kamek was ready to cast his sleep spell on the kingdom, but upon arriving, he was shocked by what he saw. He saw a huge tentacle monster ravaging the castle.

From where he was, he could not tell that it was Peach, but he felt obligated to let Bowser know that some other being was trying to take his job.

As he flew off towards the castle, he noticed that Bowser was already headed for the castle. He flew using what was known as the Clown Copter. Basically, it was shaped like a bowl as Bowser sat in it and as the name implied, it had a clown face on it and a propeller on the bottom.

"Kamek, I trust you got the job done," he said as Kamek shook his head and explained, "There's a big monster trying to kidnap the princess!"

"WHAT!?" Bowser retorted with anger in his eyes, "I'll teach him to march in on my territory!"

Bowser's copter went to full gear and charged towards the monstrosity. Upon seeing it, Bowser didn't care how threatening this beast looked. He was determined to stop it. Only he was allowed to kidnap the princess and he would be sure that it stayed that way.

Alas, his tragic flaw was this strange ability he had to get in over his head, and this was no exception as he rammed the ship into the monster's midsection. Upon closer look, his wide widened when he saw Peach's body attached to all these tentacles and thought, 'It can't be…'

The princess released her grip on Luigi giving him a chance to catch his breath as she tore apart the clown copter and beat Bowser senseless with the other 20 tentacles.

"Is that…?"

"Yes," Luigi said responding to Bowser's words, "No one knows what happened, but Peach caught an unknown illness this morning and now she's become this horrible thing."

There was no way. Much like Mario, Bowser was crushed. The woman he loved with all his heart was a horrifying monster. He could not stand for this. Unlike Mario, he didn't care for others, just Peach, so he could not bring himself to fight back.

"What can we do?" he sniffed as Luigi looked at Bowser. If he wasn't afraid of Peach's current form, he wouldn't have even suggested this, but right now he needed all the help he could get.

"Help us," he said, "Maybe if we deal enough damage, this beast will disappear and the princess will return to normal."

Bowser's look of sadness turned to one of confidence as he said, "Of course, I knew that."

Luigi rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead as he suggested, "You should call in the koopas to help us."

"No way!" Bowser snapped, "I'm gonna do this myself! You're not allowed to help!"

And so Bowser curled up into his shell and started to spin towards Peach. But before he could do a thing, the tentacles wrapped around his shell picking him up. Sure, the spikes pierced holes into the ones surrounding the top of his shell, but for some reason, this monster didn't feel any pain, so all this really did was fuel Peach's anger.

With a quick thrust of her tentacles, the princess hurled Bowser hard into some rubble as for the first time ever his shell broke.

Luigi stared in horror, jaw dropped, as Bowser's shell shattered to pieces and he was "naked" for the first time ever. Though it was slightly amusing to see Bowser with orange skin and a pair of underwear on, the fact that Peach was able to break his shell to pieces frightened the young plumber.

As Peach advanced on Luigi he started throwing more hammers, but he was too rash and they were easily knocked to the side.

Then Luigi remembered a great power that the hammer suit held. (I made this up, by the way) He focused hard as he whipped out another hammer. This one grew to 10 times the size it was when he took it out. Luigi furiously hurled it towards Peach, but due to his lack of physical strength, it didn't go far, but it had managed to cause and earthquake and it also flattened 3 of the tentacles blowing them open as a green goo spilled out.

"That was easy," Luigi said, but was horrified when the tentacles regenerated.

Regardless of his fear, Luigi couldn't stop thinking about one thing during all of this. Where had Mario gone?

We now take you to Mario who was sound asleep now. His eyes had finally opened around this time and he found himself in what looked like a laboratory. He looked out the window and had no idea what he was looking at. The world outside was dark and dank… even more so than Bowser's kingdom.

'Where am I?' he thought to himself. What was this strange world he was in?


	3. Chapter 3

Mushroom Kingdom Virus

Mario looked around the room he was in. Everything looked so high-tech and futuristic. Where had he been teleported to? He wished he knew.

Suddenly, a door opened up as a young woman with a slim build entered. She had long white hair and skin that almost looked pale. She wore what looked like a space battle outfit along with a tie. She also wore long white pants. She was dressed up like a soldier of some kind… if you ignore the business tie.

"Hello, Mario," she said with a friendly smile, Mario blinking and thinking, 'How does she know my name?'

For the most part, this should have been obvious. Everyone knew who Mario was. He was a superstar. But this was not the case with this young woman. She had a much different reason.

"Welcome," she said with a bow, "I am Melinda and you are in Celeste, another dimension linked to yours."

"Why am I here?" Mario asked as Melinda seemed to ignore this question, keeping her smile on as she said, "Follow me and I will give you the grand tour."

Mario was relieved that it wasn't a tour of the outside. He saw nothing but darkness out there through the window. Melinda showed him everything from the building's many labs to the washrooms. All the while, she acted really friendly, which was both relaxing and alarming for the plumber. It was like she was planning something.

That sense of doubt left him when the woman pointed into the cafeteria and asked, "How about some dinner?"

Mario's eyes turned into hearts when he noticed a big plate of spaghetti with only the finest of pasta sauce covering it. His mouth drooled and all sense of reality left the plumber as the smell from the sauce lifted him towards the table, a love-struck look on Mario's face. Maybe Melinda wasn't such a suspicious figure after all.

Meanwhile, Luigi was now out cold as his hammer power had left him. Bowser was also still unconscious as Peach lifted up more toads, sucking their energy dry. All the toads had given up on trying to stop the princess and were fleeing for their lives with little to no success, all except for one.

"PRINCESS, STOP THIS BEHAVIOR IMMEDIATELY!!!" came a loud and booming voice that followed with a bit of coughing, the owner shaking his head and saying, "I say, I'm not used to shouting like that."

You're never gonna believe this, but Toadsworth for the first time was taking a stand, and against his dear princess of all things. But he wasn't unarmed, either. He had appeared before the princess wielding a weapon of some kind. It had a mushroom bud as a handle and a mushroom cap as a holder with a blade sticking up out of it. This was a weapon that had been passed down through the Mushroom Kingdom for generations and was simply known as the Mushroom Sword.

"If harming you is the only way to bring you back, so be it," Toadsworth stated, "I'd rather have a hurt princess than a destructive one."

The fire burning in his eyes showed a new side of Toadsworth the likes no one had ever seen. He had erased his cowardly thoughts and overprotective nature from his mind and gained a new sense of purpose.

Toadsworth charged towards the princess, ignoring his old man heart, while Peach threw her tentacles at him. He simply sliced the tentacles off one-by-one, but knowing they would regenerate, aimed the blade towards Peach's face.

"Let's hope this puts an end to it!" he shouted as a mushroom-shaped beam fired from the blade.

After the beam knocked Peach to the ground, Toadsworth's eyes widened as he noticed himself holding the blade then looked at Peach's position. He blinked and asked, "I say, did I do all that?"

But his loss of sanity hadn't been quite enough as the princess raised, her tentacles returning, her expression angrier than ever before and her eyes glowing a brighter shade of red. The old toad panicked as he passed out, his heart beating faster than it should.

Peach lifted the old man up as energy started to pump through her tentacles. She had started sucking the energy out of her own guardian, the man who had been like a father to her for so many years.

But as his face started to wrinkle, Luigi rose to his feet along with shell-less Bowser as all 4 eyes widened. Bowser grunted and shouted, "THAT'S IT!!!! I WANT MY TRUE LOVE BACK!!!"

Bowser charged at Peach and rammed his horns into her chest as her eyes widened. She failed to notice the evil king coming as she dropped Toadsworth, who had just enough energy leftover to breathe.

Bowser then opened his mouth and shot a fire ball at Peach's tentacles lighting all of them on fire. The princess, like before, did not feel this as she smacked Bowser in the face. When she noticed the flames on her tentacles, she simply spun her body around creating a wind current and putting the fire out.

Bowser regained focus, rubbing his head then blushed when he notices he had no shell and placed his hands over his underwear, a grin of embarrassment. This would have been more amusing, but right now, Luigi was panicking far too much and was unable to do anything to help.

Mario had finished off 4 bowls of different types of pasta as he patted his belly and asked, "May I have some more?"

"Certainly," Melinda replied, giving him a warm smile and putting the water on the boil once again, this time taking out bowtie pasta.

But suddenly, Mario's enthusiasm ended as something in his brain clicked. Then reality hit him hard in the face.

"I HAVE TO SAVE THE KINGDOM AND THE PRINCESS!!!" he shouted as Melinda dropped the bag of pasta to the floor, her eyes wide open and tears running down her face.

She quickly wiped her tears and turned to Mario saying, "It's hopeless, Mario. You tried your best and failed. Soon, your world will be destroyed. You should just spend the rest of your life here."

Mario looked down and sighed. Perhaps Melinda was right. But then he heard the tone of voice she was using more clearly. No, this couldn't be what he thought it was, could it?

"ARE YOU COMING ONTO ME!!!??" he spat, eyes wide open and his body trembling as Melinda's eyes sparkled, the girl with a sad look and blushing while saying, "Mario, I've been watching you for 2 years. They show your adventures on TV here. I love you, Mario. The princess doesn't deserve someone as great as you."

Mario gritted his teeth and fumed, shouting in a demanding voice, "Send me back to the Mushroom Kingdom!"

Melinda let down tears, kneeling down on her knees and crying, "Mario, we were meant to be together! I did everything for you; saved your life, made you pasta… all of it was for you…"

She then rose to her feet with a serious expression, wiped her tears and stated, "This is all that princess' fault! If I save the kingdom, I know you'll fall for me, Mario!"

Mario's eyes widened with fear, but before he could protest this claim, the woman pushed him to the side and walked into another room. Mario grimaced and ran after her, noticing that she had entered a room with a teleporter in it.

"Everything will be alright, Mario," Melinda said with a compassionate smile, but before she could enter, Mario leapt at her and pinned her to the ground.

As he lay atop her, Melinda blushed and said, "Please, Mario, can't this wait until after I save the kingdom?"

Mario's eyes widened as he climbed off of her and blushed while rubbing the back of his neck and saying, "You've got it all wrong."

Then he came up with a plan and said, "I'll come with you."

Melinda blushed and put on a shy smile, turning away from him as she said, "Mario, us fighting together is a dream come true, but I'm afraid the portal only takes on person and I don't want you to be in any danger."

The plumber was very irritated by Melinda's behavior, but her words were even more alarming. If Mario didn't enter that portal, it was hopeless. But he'd thought about it for too long as Melinda was only a step away from entering the portal.

"MELINDA!!!" the plumber shouted, "DON'T KILL THE PRINCESS, OKAY!!!!??"

But Melinda didn't hear him as she entered the portal and it closed up, Mario falling to his hands and knees and slamming his fist into the floor. How dare he allow this to happen? How dare he not get through the portal first? But this was no time to beat himself up. He had to find another way back to the mushroom kingdom.

His eyes sparkled when he noticed next to the portal was a computer. Maybe this was how it worked. He turned the monitor on as a female voice said, "Password required."

Mario thought hard about this, but what kind of password would Melinda have? Wait, what was the one thing that always seemed to be on her mind? Then it hit him.

'MARIO' was what he typed as the female voice came back saying, "Access granted."

All seemed lost as Luigi and Bowser were repeatedly slammed against the rubble, the princess furious beyond belief. But just when all seemed lost, a young woman with long white hair appeared wielding a blade made of pure energy. Without saying a word, she leapt at Peach and kicked her hard in the face, releasing her hold on the plumber and the turtle.

Bowser rubbed his head groaning, "Who is that?"

"I don't know," Luigi said, "but anyone who's willing to help us can't be all that bad."

Melinda leapt back at Peach, blade out as the princess whipped her tentacles at the woman. Melinda simply sliced the tentacles open as she aimed the blade towards the princess' mouth. She was aiming to stab is through Peach's head.

"SHE INTENDS TO KILL THE PRINCESS!!!" Luigi screamed, trembling with fear while Bowser grimaced shouting, "Pretty girl or not, no one kills my true love!"

Just as Melinda was about to strike, Bowser picked up a chunk of his shell with a spike on it and hurled it into the woman's back. Melinda fumed as she pried the spike out and said, "I'll deal with you afterwards, Bowser Koopa…"

But she spoke too soon as the tentacles returned and Peach used this opportunity to send the girl flying within the remaining castle walls. Melinda rubbed her head and was ready to get back to the fight when Mario appeared behind her, anger in his eyes while he snapped, "How dare you try to kill my future wife!?"


End file.
